The Maya are a somewhat reserved people, but they take pride in their culture and enjoying sharing it with others.

Photo: Riviera Maya Destination Marketing Office

The Maya are a somewhat reserved people, but they take pride in...

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If you want to experience Maya culture outside of the tourist zones, consider the smaller cities of the Puuc route, like Calakmul.

Photo: Mexico Tourism Board

If you want to experience Maya culture outside of the tourist...

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Learn why Wrigley's and Trident are part of modern life and see how real chewing gum is extracted and processed at "chewing gum" camp in the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve.

Photo: Riviera Maya Destination Marketing Office

Learn why Wrigley's and Trident are part of modern life and see how...

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Learn why Wrigley's and Trident are part of modern life and see how real chewing gum is extracted and processed at "chewing gum" camp in the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve.

Photo: Riviera Maya Destination Marketing Office

Learn why Wrigley's and Trident are part of modern life and see how...

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Though it still draws many tourists, Coba remains largely unexcavated in a deep, shady forest and is less-visited than Chichen Itza or Tulum.

Photo: Christine Delsol, Special To SFGate

Though it still draws many tourists, Coba remains largely...

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Dzibilnocac in Campeche is another lesser-known Maya destination best for more adventurous tourists.

Photo: Mexico Tourism Board

Dzibilnocac in Campeche is another lesser-known Maya destination...

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On the road between the city of Tulum and its beach hotel zone, the "Pyramid of Positive Thinking," created by Mexican artist Xavier de Maria y Campos, is to be composed of up to 700,000 written dreams, wishes and good thoughts.

Photo: Riviera Maya Destination Marketing Office

On the road between the city of Tulum and its beach hotel zone, the...

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Chocolate, the Maya's most famous (and delicious) contribution to modern culture, is at its best at Ah Cacao in Playa del Carmen and Ki'Xocolatl in Merida.

A funny thing happened on the way to Dec. 21, 2012: The visions of apocalypse that got the whole world counting down to the supposedly fateful date turned into a celebration of Maya culture, past and present. In Mexico, the Mundo Maya resides in the Yucatan (Quintana Roo, Yucatan and Campeche states) and Tabasco and Chiapas states, and the swirl of festive events is reaching fever pitch.

The "end of the Maya calendar" is proving to be bigger than Christmas, and in Mexico that's no mean feat. With an estimated 500 Maya-themed events taking place in the region between now and the end of the year, it can be tough for a traveler looking south for some Maya immersion to know where to start. Here are some suggestions, but they only scratch the surface; leave room to make your own discoveries.

New monuments to the Maya

Two long-planned major museums dedicated to showcasing the Maya legacy opened last month, long after their planned debut dates but in time for the 2012 hoopla. With their similar names and similar goals – to exhibit artifacts from the ancient Maya civilization in modern, state-of-the art galleries – the casual observer can be excused for confusing the two.

The Gran Museo del Mundo Maya (Great Museum of the Maya World) in Merida, Yucatan's capital, holds anthropological, historical and archaeological displays that exiting Yucatan Governor Ivonne Ortega described as fulfilling "a pending debt with our Mayan ancestors, our culture, with this land and with ourselves." Employing more than 6,000 tons of steel – an Eiffel Tower's worth – in an aggressively modern and highly technological design, it examines Maya culture both past and present.

Hundreds of ancient artifacts are included in its cavernous showrooms – four for permanent exhibitions and another for temporary displays. Many pieces came from the galleries and storerooms of the Regional Museum of Anthropology and History in the majestic Palacio Canton, built in Merida's affluent, Eurocentric period during the reign of Porfirio Diaz in the early 1900s. Palacio Canton has narrowed its focus to regional history. Artist Richemont Xavier, known for light and sound shows he has designed in Europe, has created a special show for the new museum, which also includes a botanical garden, a 350-seat theater, a child care center, a cafeteria and a shop. The museum occupies 5 square miles adjacent to Merida's convention center on the Merida-Progreso Highway/Calle 60 in the northernmost reaches of the city.

The Palacio de la Civilizacion Maya (Palace of Maya civilization) was built on a nearly 1,000-acre site in the impoverished village of Yaxcaba, about 8 miles southwest of Chichen Itza, primarily to house artifacts excavated from the famous "World Wonder" ruins' Cenote Sagrada (Sacred Well). Many of the objects have never been on public display before. Like the Merida museum, this one also contains relics from the former Museum of Anthropology in Merida. But the "palace's" most notable resident, and its centerpiece, is the Mujer de las Palmas (Woman of the Palms). Recovered from a cenote near Tulum in 2002, it is as much as 13,000 years old – the oldest skeleton found yet on the Yucatan Peninsula. A scientific reconstruction of the well-preserved skeleton in 2010 has shifted theories about the origin of the Maya, suggesting they migrated from a much broader area of Asia, extending to Indonesia, than originally believed.

Taking advantage of Yaxcaba's topography, the museum is anchored by the town's cenote, which the Maya regarded as sacred doorways to the underworld, and a ceiba tree, their symbol of the link between heaven, earth and the underworld. The long, white path tying the museum's facilities together represents a sac-be, the raised limestone causeways that connected the ancient Maya cities.

Lesser in scale but every bit as magnanimous in its intentions is the "Pyramid of Positive Thinking" on the road between the city of Tulum and its beach hotel zone. The modern pyramid created by Mexican artist Xavier de Maria y Campos is to be composed of up to 700,000 written dreams, wishes and good thoughts placed in recycled polyethylene terephthalate bottles that will be layered with soil containing regional plant seeds on a steel pyramid-shaped frame. At the moment it is a pyramidal skeleton with a green skirt, but the idea is that by Dec. 21, the pyramid's steel frame will be blanketed in green foliage, standing ready to usher in a "new era of positive thinking."

The pyramid hosts a panoply of special events, but visitors are welcome from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day. You can even deposit your positive thoughts online.

Maya excursions

This is one of the best times to venture beyond the Caribbean playgrounds and discover a culture that easily equals that of China or Egypt. The ancient cities dotting the Yucatan remain infused with a quiet, ancient spirit and present ample evidence of the Maya's still-astounding accomplishments in astronomy, architecture, agriculture, engineering and art. Many travelers who frequent the Caribbean coast are fond of Chichen Itza and Tulum, and anyone who hasn't visited those sites should definitely pay their respects. However, the most rewarding Maya city in that area is Coba, which remains largely unexcavated in a deep, shady forest and is less-visited than Chichen Itza or Tulum. Though it still draws more visitors than sites farther inland, it is a vast site with many pockets of peace. And its massive El Castillo, larger than Chichen Itza's central pyramid of the same name, is still open to climbers.

You'll do even better if you're willing to venture farther from tourist comfort zones. In a previous column, we suggested Uxmal and the smaller cities of the Puuc route, Edzna, Calakmul and some of our other favorite sites where you'll encounter as many monkeys and coatimundis as tourists. Those of an adventurous and inquisitive nature should also consider Dzibilnocac and Tabasqueño in Campeche and Yaxchilan in Chiapas. Also in Chiapas, Palenque is far from undiscovered, but it is arguably the most beautiful ancient city in the entire Maya world.

Meeting today's Maya

The Maya are a somewhat reserved people, at least on first meeting. You will encounter them working in the tourist meccas along the Caribbean, and selling their crafts and produce in nearly every city and town. Start a conversation, and you'll soon discover their sly humor and basic human kindness. If you visit them on their home turf, their pride in their heritage shines through and they start to open up in their eagerness to share it with you.

Alltournative is a Playa del Carmen company that has worked with local Maya communities for years to help them become self-sustaining without burning the land to squeeze out the last drop of nutrients in order to support their traditional agricultural economy. Part of that effort hinges on agreements with several villages to introduce ecotourism into their local economy. On their Maya Encounter tour, for example, men from the village of Pac Chen take visitors through the jungle, explaining what various plants and land formations meant to their ancestors and how they are used. They send you gliding over a surface cenote on a zip line (not a traditional Maya practice, to be sure), help you rappel into the underground Jaguar cenote, and then install you in kayaks to explore a lagoon guarded by howler and spider monkeys. After an elder bestows a copal-incense visitors' blessing, village women serve a robust lunch of such traditional dishes as grilled achiote chicken and fresh tortillas under an open-air palapa.

In Merida, Catherwood Travels offers a host of tours focusing on meeting the local Maya, with an emphasis on crafts people. In addition to day excursions focusing on Maya astronomy, archaeology, cenotes and ancient cities, they offer three- to 10-day tours delving into the Maya world of both the past and present, visiting small towns, little-known archaeological sites and nature reserves. Participants also may visit a Maya medicine expert to learn about ancient herb remedies and visit the workshops of the Haciendas of the Maya World Foundation, set up to help women in communities surrounding restored haciendas in Yucatan and Campeche provide much-needed income.

Volunteers get even closer to the contemporary Maya's daily life. Visitors can bring food and medicine to Dos Palmas and help out in the community. In Akumal, famous for having sea turtles in residence virtually year round, the Centro Ecologico Akumal has worked with the community for 20 years to protect the turtles and their ecosystem; they use volunteers to help process scientific data, write for publications, and take on other tasks to support scientific research. The Friends of the Maya Foundation, which links local Maya communities with visitors to help improve their education, health care and ecology, accepts volunteers to help build schools and community centers, restore the jungle, save a beach, acquire goats and other projects.

On your own

Travelers who depend more on serendipity than planning for their adventures can find their own way into the Maya culture. (To manage it without a car, snag one of the ADO bus line's special Maya Passes, which allow you to travel between Maya sites for three, seven, 14 or 21 days.) A few ideas:

Visit Izamal's wealth of craft workshops. Izamal, one of Mexico's Magic Pueblos, is a colonial city built on top of an ancient Maya city. An emerging artisans' colony, it is peppered with workshops for embroidery, jewelers, paper-mache, wood-working, herbal medicine, hammock making, and other traditional crafts. The self-guided map to the workshops is no longer available from the cultural center, but the Macan che B&B can provide copies.

Revel in chocolate. The Maya's most famous contribution to modern culture is at its best at Ah Cacao in Playa del Carmen and Ki'Xocolatl in Merida. But the ratio of great to mediocre chocolate is higher in its birthplace than just about anywhere in the world, so you aren't risking much by just plunging in. For a thorough background not only in the wonders of chocolate but its place in Maya culture, visit the Eco Museo del Cacao near Uxmal.

Raise a glass to the new era. Mayan coffee, a spiced coffee laced with Kahlua and Xtabentun and set aflame is a perfect drink to top off a hearty Maya meal. Many resorts serve it to top off dinner; you can also order it in restaurants such as Ajua Maya in Playa del Carmen.

Go back to camp. Learn why Wrigley's and Trident are part of modern life and see how real chewing gum is extracted and processed at "chewing gum" camp in the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve. You'll also get to explore the reserve's turquoise lagoons and mangroves in the Mexican Caribbean's largest protected area.

Cleanse your soul. A session in a temazcal, the Maya version of a traditional sweat lodge, will leave you appropriately renewed for the ushering in of a new era. Guests at Sandos Caracol Eco-Resort & Spa, Hacienda Tres Rios, Rosewood Mayakoba and some other resorts will find a temazcal at their disposal. You can also sweat it out at the Xcaret mega-park of Maya culture, in the Maya village of Dos Palmas, as part of a visit that includes a swim in a cenote and dinner, or at Cenote Tres Bocas.

Join in the celebration. The official Mundo Maya 2012 website maintains a calendar of events throughout the region, along with a countdown to Dec. 21, information on other countries in the Maya world, details on archaeological sites both famous and obscure, and listings of lodging and restaurants.